asgardmods | NPC RULES

npc rules and expectations.

❧ the mighty gods of asgard.
PLEASE NOTE: The NPC roles currently available for application are:

Njord; our previous player unfortunately had to drop out before getting a chance to play him, but that also means you aren't tied to any previous interactions or characterization. You will be able to start him off as an essentially brand new character!
Tyr; our previous player did get a chance to thread with some of the PCs, giving him a little bit of "canon" material to keep in mind moving forward, but you would not be fully married to his characterization and would be able to expand on what exists to make him your own.
Mimir; our previous player unfortunately had to drop out before getting a chance to play him, but that also means you aren't tied to any previous interactions or characterization. You will be able to start him off as an essentially brand new character!
Frigg; our previous player did get a chance to thread with some of the PCs, giving her a little bit of "canon" material to keep in mind moving forward, but you would not be fully married to her characterization and would be able to expand on what exists to make her your own.

Part of what made Asgard Eventide such a fun experience for many players was the presence of the NPCs and the way they interacted with the PCs. In designing Asgard Genesis from somewhere in the middle moving outwards, we wanted to take that element of the original game and try to turn it on its head. Instead of them appearing only when requested or in times of need, or showing up at the end of the plot to save the day, we want the NPCs in Asgard Genesis to be completely accessible to the PCs at all times. We want the PCs to be able to influence the gods and their decisions, to have an active role in the development of both the world and the game. And the only way that's possible is if we have people devoted to playing their god as an active character in the game, having daily interactions with the PCs.

We're hoping that's where you come in, but you have to know some very crucial things before you apply. What we're asking for is a big commitment, because we will need you throughout the length of the game to keep a constant flow of interaction with our players. We don't currently know how long the game will run for, so this is an indefinite commitment and we would really suffer for it if you were to lose interest or drop partway through. The main reason for this being that the characters as they exist right now are just shallow caricatures of their domains, and you will be making them into fully realized characters of your own design. Who could possibly replace the original?

❧ rules and expectations.
That said, and before we get anywhere near applications, here are some ground rules we have to set down first:

By joining the NPC team, you are agreeing to be a de facto mod helper. This means we expect you to maintain a certain level of decorum when you interact with the other players, much in the same way the mods have to. No, you don't have to be formal with them and treat them like a separate group, but we do need you to be courteous and welcoming to everyone without bias. You represent the very heart of our game and that does come with a large amount of responsibility. Set the standard for how we want our players to be awesome and inviting and encouraging of each other's ideas. This is the culture we're aiming for and you will be the face of the game in this regard. We're really counting on you!

Your role comes with a lot of power, so you must be fair to the players. In some ways, the game rules don't apply to you. In other ways, they apply a thousandfold. The gods are all powerful beings; they absolutely can take control of a character's actions against their will, and they have the ability to know everything about a character in an instant. You can play with these aspects, but understand that certain abuse of this ability will deeply upset our players. If we expect our players to plot ahead of time for their powers, we do for you doubly so. Even just a small OOC note in your previous comment or a message to their journal will suffice: "Hey, my character is going to do this thing that might reveal information about yours, how do you want to handle this?" or something to that effect. Always try to respect a player's wishes to the best of your ability when exercising power over another. We really, really would like to avoid any potential instances of NPC power abuse. Please be respectful to the players.

If you're ever uncertain about an interaction with a player, tag a mod in right away. This can be anything from not knowing how to answer a question to someone being inappropriate or upset about the game. It's our responsibility as the mods to handle these kinds of difficult situations with the players, so please please always get one of us before trying to handle it yourself. For one thing, we'd rather take the flack from an uncomfortable situation than one of our team members. Being on the team is already putting a lot of heat on you, we are not expecting you to play mediator as well. Secondly, we have to enforce our game's rules fairly across the board, so any sticky situations need to be taken care of by an official mod for accountability. When in doubt, call a mod, even if it seems minor. We'd prefer to be called in when we aren't strictly needed than to be missing when we are.

Please be certain you can make the time commitment before you apply. New characters must be able to greet you upon entry to the game at the start of each month, and you must be available for regular interactions throughout the month. We're not going to go so far as to require any AC from you, because that's ridiculous and we don't want to put that kind of arbitrary pressure on you. But we want you to be as active as possible to give a full immersion into this new world of ours, so we need you to be realistic about whether or not you can devote the time required for that. While there is no set quota for tags, if you consider that we're requiring ten to fifteen comments a month from our players that are not responsible for interacting with what is essentially the entire playerbase, we're going to hope for quite a lot more than that from you every month.

If at any point you need to take a hiatus or think you might be busier than normal, that is completely fine! This isn't a real job and we never ever want you to prioritize RP over RL. Please let the mods know beforehand so we can plan accordingly. We can have someone take over your tags in the interim, or we can devise some sort of plotty reason for your NPC to be absent for a time. This delves into some sketchy territory in terms of consistency, so just let us know if anything comes up and we'll figure it out together.

You will be a major driving force behind both mod plots and player plots. As a member of our NPC team, you will be a very important facilitator of plot development in the game. On the metaplot level, the gods hold the most information and understanding of Yggdrasil overall, so you very likely end up fielding a lot of questions about the world as well as being involved in monthly mod plots, such as new lore information or any god house competitions or curses your character might want to start.

On the player plot level, we want the PCs to be able to do pretty much anything within reason, and the gods may be responsible for facilitating the magic to make those things possible. A very simple example would be if a player wants to open an establishment of some sort; your god can erect the building with a quick snap of their fingers to help them get started, or you can produce coffee cherries for them to be able to grow and harvest coffee beans. What's important to remember is not to do everything for them, but to provide them with the means to make it thrive on their own efforts. If at any point you aren't sure about the answer to a question or how/whether or not to do something, tag a mod in and we'll help you figure it out!

On the tail of the last rule, you must do your best to remain unbiased and maintain a certain level of confidentiality. Try not to give metaplot information or special treatment to your friends or other players in the game. There really shouldn't be anything too ~super secret~ other than upcoming mod plots that we'd like to keep under wraps until announcement, but we do also want to maintain a certain level of mystery, intrigue, and even uncertainty. The gods aren't 100% sure what's happening right now either, and we want the PCs to be involved in the search for answers.

And related to rule number 2, you must always be fair to all players equally. If two players make similar requests, try your hardest to respond to both in a similar manner. Try to avoid preferential treatment to players you know or characters you're personally fond of. Your NPC's relationship with the PCs should develop over time, so it's okay for a god to show appreciation for a character that's gotten close to them, but be very careful not to show obvious bias or do anything particularly special for them that might raise concerns of unfairness. As with anything, if you're ever unsure, just ask a mod! Chances are what you have in mind is perfectly fine, but checking first is always a good idea.

❧ what are the perks of the job?
Because let's be quite frank here, this is a gonna be a job. :( Much in the way modwork is a labor of love, this role is going to end up being pretty involved over time. We want to make sure you're enjoying the game too, though. If you aren't having fun, we've lost sight of our mission. Asgard Genesis is meant to be a joint collaborative effort. We want to build a new world together, with all the players and as players ourselves. Making the NPCs applicable characters like this was one of our attempts to answer the question of: how do we give as much creative freedom to the players as possible within a contained environment? You guys are the container, you are what makes the magic possible without this being a complete free for all. That means you should be all up in the middle of that creativity and exploration, helping people build something together. If at any point that stops being fun and starts being a chore for you, then we've made a mistake somewhere and we want to fix that.

So the first thing we want to say as the mods is please rely on us for literally anything you need. You are our team and we want to support you in every way possible. If someone asks a question you don't know the answer to, or if you want to do something you're not sure about, ask and we will always be happy to guide you. If you feel overwhelmed or pressured or anything at all, tell us what we can do to help make things easier. Are the intro events too active for you to keep up with? Is there enough for you to do outside of those? Is there too much? Faith and Autumn both have NPCs of their own so we'll be getting a taste of it, but we want to hear from you directly. Please don't ever hesitate to come to us with questions or concerns. We love you. We appreciate you. And we want to keep you forever and ever, so please tell us how we can make this an enjoyable experience for you.

With that very sincerely said and done, there are a few things we consider to be pretty cool perks of playing one of the NPCs! Hopefully you agree with us, but absolutely feel free to ask questions and learn more about what this role will look like in the comments below.

Each god is uniquely their own character, and you will be fleshing them out yourselves. We have the basic framework of character dynamics and personality traits based on the gods' individual domains and such, but we want you to take those basic descriptions and turn them into a fully realized character with thoughts and motivations. Many of their principles and beliefs are based on their domain, but what does an immortal embodiment of those ideals look like? What happens when they come in direct contact with followers of their domain? Or followers of another's domain? Will this experience change them? Or will it further cement them into what they already believed? These are the kinds of things we're hoping we'll get to explore as active NPCs. Asgard Eventide had the unfortunate effect of having largely shallow NPC relationships, but those relationships were still widely treasured. We think we can build upon that and make an even more special relationship between NPC and PC, and you'll be the ones driving this expedition. We hope this feels just as exciting as playing a canon or original character in a new game, with some bonus power and authority.

Speaking of power and authority, playing a god comes with heaps. You are playing actual gods. Immortal beings, impervious to damage, master manipulators of magic - and literally everything is made of magic, including the Wanderers. The gods are capable of nearly any type of display of magic, from materializing things out of thin air to reading into the depths of a person's soul. Faith's most notable use of this all powerful magic was Asgard Eventide's one and only mandatory curse, wherein Loki forced everyone to wear ugly Christmas sweaters for a day. No matter how many layers you put on, the top one was always an ugly Christmas sweater. This is the kind of silly abuse of power we're looking for; be nice to our PCs, but definitely fuck with them. That's half the fun of playing an NPC. Another perfect example was the time Loki post-it bombed a PC's bedroom just for shits and giggles. (Man, I'm gonna miss playing Loki so much...) Please have fun with this - but, as we stated in the rules, be careful with it too. This can be a really fun way to exercise power when done right. We wholeheartedly encourage plotting with players to give out personal curses too, if that's how your NPC and their PC interact with each other!

The gods are immediately involved with almost all plots. Mod plots will typically flow through the gods to the players, but we also want player plots to reach the mods through the gods. This means you can come up with your own ideas for events or curses. You can help PCs facilitate their ideas by giving them a spark of magic to get started. You can even help the players by listening to the types of questions or interactions you're having most frequently and coming up with new ways to address them. Please always feel free to bring up new ideas or changes both in character and out of character. Have your god hit up Odin if they have an idea for Asgard. Hit up one of the mods if you have an idea for the game. Welcome and encourage player ideas and get in on the ground floor of making those things possible for them. Having this much access to the plot should be really fun and exciting, because it leaves a whole host of things you can do. Any story-plot type stuff will generally come from Faith, but please always feel free to propose events of your own!

If you're a fan of TLDR, there is a 10k word doc of world lore for the NPCs to lean on. Faith wanted there to be a strong foundation of lore to be able to wrap our heads around what exactly these beings are and how they might think or act. This spiraled into an in-depth breakdown of how Yggdrasil came into being and all the immortals' roles in that process. I created a loose timeline leading right up to not just the creation of Asgard but the first arrival of the Wanderers, so that we could have an idea of every major development that brought the world to this point, and how that might influence the gods' opinions and driving motivations now. It is, as with everything else I do, left intentionally rather vague so that we can still take liberties with what we decide to do with this lore. It's a very flexible guideline, rather than a strict book of rules to follow. This may affect some of how you choose to portray your character after your application has been accepted, but this is perfectly okay! These roles are a process in development, so always feel free to ask questions or try something new. NPC team members are also always welcomed and encouraged to contribute their own ideas or suggestions for world building!

❧ ready to apply?
If you've read all this and it sounds like fun, we would really love for you to apply to join our team! Detailed application rules and guidelines are on the next page, along with the basic descriptions of the gods you'll be referencing for your application. Applications will be open until all available roles have been filled.

If you're interested but still not sure, please feel free to ask any questions you may have here on this page! We will be keeping comments and this page in its entirety publicly visible for accountability. Everyone should be getting the same answers, and everyone should be held to the same rules. Players will also be able to view this page to see what rules the NPC team is expected to follow, and to understand how the development of these roles came about. Please give us every question you've got, because we're honestly making this up as we go too. We'll figure it out together!

❧ npc applications

navigation.